WWE Clash At The Castle 2022

It was a big weekend of wrestling. One night featured the AEW All Out PPV, while the other night featured WWE's Clash At The Castle show from Wales. Prevailing circumstances prevented me from catching the AEW show, but I was able to watch the WWE PPV and so I'd figure that I would share my thoughts here.

We're about a month or so removed from HHH's stint as the new head of WWE Creative and there has been some changes here and there. A bunch of guys who were released have been brought back, there's more of a focus on wrestling, and people are even allowed to say wrestling and hospital. It's not exactly a huge turnaround and it's still going to be a while before we can properly gauge this a success, but it's steps in the right direction.

So I'm going to give this relatively minor show that's being treated like a big deal a fair shake. And if turns out good, who knows? I might start watching these WWE PPVs again when they happen. Otherwise, I'll be more than content waiting until the new year to give this another shot.

Damage Control (Bayley, Io "Iyo Sky" Shirai, and Dakota Kai) defeated Bianca Belair, Asuka, and Alex Bliss in a somewhat longish, but otherwise inoffensive six-woman tag match that saw Bayley pin Belair for the finish, possibly teasing a match between the two down the road.

Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER defeated Sheamus in what the cool kids call "an absolute banger" of a match to retain the title. This was a Welch bloke and an Irish bloke beating the living bloke out of each other for damn near twenty minutes and I bloke-ing love it. Best match of the weekend as far as I'm concerned and nothing else comes close to this one.

Liv Morgan retains the Smackdown title over Shayna Baszler and didn't look like a fucking chump in the finish. No GUNTHER/Sheamus, but it was fine.

Edge & Rey Mysterio defeated Finn Balor & Damian Priest in a perfectly acceptable tag match... and then Dominik turns on his fake daddy and Edge. Beats the crap out of them. I guess Eddie really was his papi... is Vickie still signed with AEW? I feel she should be involved in this program.

Seth Rollins defeated Matt Riddle in another fine match. Basically, Seth got the better of Riddle who can't keep his cool and that ended up costing him the match. Simple, but effective storytelling.

WWE Undisputed Champion Roman Reigns defeated Drew McIntyre with an assist from some guy named Solo Sikoa... apparently, he was an NXT guy, but he's related to the Usos, so I guess he's part of the Bloodline or something. Anyway, the match was fine, but the ending was a bit of a cop out. There was also a bit where Austin Theory (yes, Theory got his first name back - and thank fuck for that) tried to cash in, but some boxing bloke whose name I forgot kept him from doing so. 

Anyway, in terms of just enjoying a show, this Clash delivered in spades, but in terms of stuff happening like title changes or significant steps forward... other than the opener, not much else to look forward. Still, I had a fun time with this one and that WALTER/Sheamus match was the highlight of the night as far as I'm concerned. Thumbs up, indeed.